Do you ever wonder about those drivers who cut you off, swerve into your lane, zoom through stop signs or otherwise break the law: How in the world did they pass their driving test?

It’s possible they didn’t.

A scheme that took root in or around 2010 at the Department of Motor Vehicles offices of El Cajon and Rancho San Diego resulted in hundreds of standard and commercial driving licenses being granted to people who failed or never took their driving tests. Applicants “who were unwilling or unable to pass the required DMV written and driving tests would speak with the recruiters. … If they paid the fee, they would not have to take any of the required tests in order to receive a license,” federal court records state. The arrangement “created a significant public safety risk,” the records continue.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen anything like this,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Orabona.

Last week nine people were charged with bribery and conspiracy, including a DMV supervisor, Jesse Mario Bryan, 36. Thursday, four defendants were arraigned. If convicted, they face prison time and fines of up to $250,000. Last May, 21 others involved in the same scheme were indicted; several of those defendants have since pleaded guilty.

In complaints for both related cases, investigators describe a two-tier scheme where members of the public bribed purveyors of illegal licenses, and where these middlemen bribed DMV employees for the licenses. The investigators offer some colorful details: furtive glances exchanged between alleged co-conspirators, flurries of text messages that discussed timing and pricing, and cryptic shorthand.

The text messages also suggest that the alleged participants put profits over safety: In one exchange from December, 2011, a DMV driving exam proctor named Jim Bean allegedly noted that a fake license applicant was a poor driver. “She gonna kill someone,” he wrote, a court record states. The man who was selling the woman the license and bribing the DMV replied, “Oh, I didn’t know. She said I’m driving ok. If u want u can skip it.” Bean, the DMV employee, immediately wrote back: “I need cash so as long as she gets help.” The recruiter then paid the DMV employee for a passing driving test score, court documents allege.

DMV officials declined to comment.

Here’s how this underground market, which produced hundreds of illegal licenses, operated:

Investigators found that from December 2010 or earlier, to April 2012, license applicants were allegedly invited to pay between $400 and $3,000 for the privilege of skipping written and behind-the-wheel driving tests. A cut went to DMV examiners and a cut went to the people who recruited the license applicants, which included a driving instructor and his assistants. In all, the bribes surpassed $100,000, an FBI investigation found. Complicit DMV employees reportedly received around $20,000 of those bribes.

DMV auditors got wind of the activities when they discovered several “highly suspicious” transactions starting in December 2010. “Despite the fact that the written and driving tests for Class C licenses should take at least 20 minutes each, DMV auditors found multiple transactions involving BRYAN, and others, where an applicant completed the entire license application process (from completing the initial application, to taking the applicant’s photograph, to completing the required tests) in under 30 minutes,” the federal complaint states.